The present invention relates to a disk player, and particularly to a disk player which detects a disk by using a plurality of sensors and controls leading-in and ejecting operations of the disk, and a technology to detect the object such as a disk, by a reflection type optical element.
Conventionally, many disk players are provided with a disk loading mechanism for lording-in and ejecting the disk. Normally, these disk players detect disk positions or disk diameters by sensors using optical elements, and based on these, control the disk loading mechanisms. The sensors for detecting the disk by using the optical element are roughly divided into 2 types of sensors such as transmission type and reflection type ones. The transmission type one of these sensors, detects the existence of the disk in such a manner that a light receiving portion and a light emitting portion are oppositely arranged in the upper and lower portions of the mechanism, and the light from the light emitting portion is interrupted by the disk, thereby the light receiving portion can not receive the light. On the other hand, the reflection type sensor detects the disk by receiving the light reflected by the disk when the disk exists on the light receiving and emitting surface of a reflection type photo-interrupter.
Conventionally, it is necessary that the sensor for such the disk loading control has 4 functions for leading-in start position detection, for disk diameter judgement, for ejection stop position detection, and for re-leading-in start position detection. When these 4 functions are realized by, for example, 3 sensors, the following structure can be considered. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, a loading roller 2 is provided on a disk insertion inlet 1a side in the disk player 1. The loading roller 2 is composed of 2 bar-like rollers provided in parallel to each other so that these rollers can nip and hold the disk, and arranged in parallel to the inserted disk surface and in the direction perpendicular to the disk insertion direction. One roller of the loading rollers 2 is rotatably provided so that it can be rotated by the driving mechanism provided with the drive source.
Three sensors A, B and C are arranged on the disk insertion inlet 1a side in the vicinity of such the loading rollers 2. The sensor A is used for leading-in start position detection, the sensor B is used for disk diameter judgement, and the sensor C is use both for ejection stop position detection and for re-leading-in start position detection. Two sensors A and B are located in the vicinity of the middle portion of the loading rollers 2 and in the disk insertion direction, and the sensor A is located on the disk insertion inlet 1a side, and the sensor B is located on the loading rollers 2 side. The sensor C is located in the vicinity of an end portion of the loading rollers 2.
Operations of sensors A, B and C, as described above, of the disk player 1 are as follows. That is, as shown in FIG. 9, when a disk D is inserted from the disk insertion inlet 1a, the sensor A detects it, and the loading rollers 2 start rotation. Then, when the disk D is pushed in the disk player 1, the leading edge of the disk D is nipped by the loading rollers 2, the disk D is pulled in by the loading rollers 2, and conveyed to a disk playing section, not shown. At this time, as shown in FIG. 10, the diameter of disk D is discriminated by the sensor B. That is, when the sensor B detects the disk D, the disk D is judged to be the 12 cm disk D1, and when the sensor B does not detect the disk D, the disk D is judged to be the 8 cm disk D2.
Next, after the playing operation in the disk playing section has been completed, and when the disk D is ejected, the disk D is nipped by the loading rollers 2 which are rotated in reverse to the case of insertion, and sent out. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, the sensor C detects off-position of the end portion of the disk D, and the loading rollers 2 stop in the condition that the disk D is nipped a little. At the condition, when the disk D is pushed in, the end portion of the disk D is detected by the sensor C, as shown in FIG. 12, and the loading rollers 2 are rotated in the pulling-in direction, and the disk D is pulled in again.
Incidentally, as described above, the sensors provided in the disk player are expensive, and when a large number of such sensors are provided in the disk player, it is disadvantageous in cost. Further, when a large number of sensors are installed, man-hours are increased. Particularly, because high accuracy is required for sensors, for example, in order to avoid the influence by the heat, caution is necessary for soldering, and so on, in short, because handling operations when a large number of sensors are installed, are rather difficult, thereby, the use of a large number of sensors are disadvantageous in an increase of the assembly efficiency and a reduction of the production cost.
As previously mentioned, the sensors each using an optical element are basically classified into two types of sensors, such as transmission type ones and reflection type ones exist as shown in FIGS. 13A to 14B.
The transmission type sensors of these ones, as shown in FIG. 13A, are structured such that a light receiving section 11 and a light emitting section 12 are arranged opposite to each other, and on standby condition, the light receiving section 11 are receiving the light always. As shown in FIG. 13B, when a disk 13 exists between the light receiving section 11 and the light emitting section 12, the disk 13 interrupts the light from the light emitting section 12 and the light receiving section 11 can not receive the light, thereby, the existence of the disk 13 is detected.
In this case, as the light receiving section 11, a phototransistor, or the like, is used, and as the light emitting section 12, an LED, or the like, is used. Further, in FIGS. 13A and 13B, as an example, a case where the light receiving section 11 is equipped on an upper portion 14 of the mechanism, and the light emitting section 12 is equipped on a printed-wiring board 15 arranged in the mechanism, is shown. In this connection, numeral 16 in the drawing is a wire which electrically connects the light receiving section 11 side to the light emitting section 12 side.
On the other hand, the reflection type sensor uses a reflection type photo-interrupter 17 which is a single body, as shown in FIG. 14A, and on standby condition, a condition that the reflection type photo-interrupter 17 emits the light always, is made to be kept. As shown in FIG. 14B, when the disk 13 exists on a light receiving and light emitting surface 17a of this reflection type photo-interrupter 17, the disk 13 is detected when the light reflected by the disk 13 is received.
In the disk player, it is necessary to provide a plurality of sensors to detect a disk leading-in start, to judge the disk diameter, to detect a disk ejection stop, or the like. However, depending on the arrangement position or arrangement direction of the plurality of sensors, optical paths of sensors interfere with each other, and there is a case where stable detection becomes difficult, thereby, malfunction is generated.
Further, in the transmission type detection system as shown in FIG. 13, because the light receiving section 11 and light emitting section 12 are separated, it is necessary to fix each of them respectively on a chassis or a board in the mechanism, and a wiring 16 to connect the light receiving section 11 to the light emitting section 12 is necessary. This results in an increase of the number of parts, complication of the apparatus, and an increase of man-hours.
On the other hand, in the reflection type detecting method as shown in FIG. 14, the method is structured to use the reflection type photo-interrupter of a single body, therefore, the number of parts can be reduced as compared to the transmission type detecting method, however, there is a possibility of misdetection due to dispersion of the reflectance of the disk 13.
That is, because many members constituting the mechanism is structured by metallic plate, and the reflectance is relatively high, the reflection type photo-interrupter 17 receives some amount of reflection light from the inside of the mechanism even when the disk 13 does not exist on the light receiving and light emitting surface 17a. Therefore, when the light receiving sensitivity of the reflection type photo-interrupter 17 is high, the reflection light from the inside of the mechanism and that from the disk 13 can not be discriminated, and there is a possibility that misdetection is generated. In order to avoid such the misdetection, it is considered that the light receiving sensitivity of the reflection type photo-interrupter 17 is lowered, however, in this case, there is a possibility that misdetection is generated due to dispersion of the reflectance of the disk 13 itself.
In this connection, such a problem as described above is not limited to the case of disk detection, but exists in the same manner, also when the positions of each type of operation members in the disk player are detected by the optical elements.
The present invention is proposed in order to solve the above-described problems of the conventional art. An object of the present invention is to provide a disk player in which the disk can be controlled by a small number of sensors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disk player in which a structure is simple and the detection can be stably performed, and malfunction can be prevented.
In order to solve the above-described problems, in the disk player having a disk conveying section driven by a drive source, and a detecting section to detect the control information of the leading-in and eject of the disk by the disk conveying section, the present invention has the following technological characteristics.
That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the detecting section has one sensor, as the first sensor, to detect a state of a leading-in start of the disk, a state of a re-leading-in start of the disk and a diameter of the disk.
In the invention as described above, because one sensor, as the first sensor, has a plurality of combined functions, the number of sensors can be reduced as compared to the case where a sensor is provided for each function.
Preferably, in the disk player as described above, the fist sensor is installed at a position at which both end portions of the disk, a central hole of the disk, or a boundary portion of a transparent portion and a reflecting portion of the inner periphery of the disk can be detected.
When the disk is inserted into the disk player, the first sensor detects the leading edge portion of the inserted disk, thereby, the state of leading-in start is detected, and the disk conveying section starts the disk leading-in operation. Then, the trailing end of the disk after leading-in is detected by the first sensor, thereby, the disk diameter is detected. Further, at the time of the disk ejection, the first sensor detects the central hole of the disk, or the boundary portion of a transparent portion and a reflecting portion of the inner periphery of the disk, thereby, the state of re-leading-in start of the disk is detected, and the disk conveying section starts the re-leading-in operation of the disk.
More preferably, the detecting section further has the second sensor to detect an ejection stop state of the disk.
Because, by only two sensors of the first and the second ones, the control of the disk leading-in and ejection can be performed, thereby, the number of sensors can be reduced.
Furthermore, the second sensor is provided at a position at which the end portion of the disk can be detected. The leading edge of the disk at the time of ejection is detected by the second sensor, thereby, the ejecting operation of the disk by the disk conveying section is stopped. At this state, when the disk is pulled out, the disk can be taken out. On the other hand, when the disk is pushed in at that state, the first sensor detects the re-leading-in start state of the disk, and the re-leading-in operation of the disk by the disk conveying section is started.
Moreover, the first and second sensors are reflection type ones or transmission type ones. In the invention as described above, the reflection type sensors or transmission type sensors are used, however, by limiting the number of them, the disk control by the highly accurate detection can be realized and the production cost can also be reduced.
In order to attain the above-described object, a disk player having a detecting section to detect an objective material in a mechanism, in which the detecting section is composed of an optical element having a light receiving and light emitting surface, and a reflection surface provided at a position at which the light from the light emitting surface is reflected onto the light receiving surface, the present invention has the following technological characteristics.
That is, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the light receiving and light emitting surface and the reflection surface are arranged with an inclination to the horizontal surface of the mechanism, and as the detecting section, a plurality of detecting sections are provided at positions at which optical paths between the optical element and the reflection surface do not interfere with each other.
Accordingly, the light receiving surface of the optical element always receives the reflected light, which is emitted from the light emitting surface and reflected via the reflection surface, on the standby condition. When an object material such as a disk, or the like, exists between the light receiving and light emitting surface and the reflection surface, because the reflected light goes to the different direction from the light receiving surface, the light receiving surface does not receive the reflected light, thereby, the existence of the object material is detected. The plurality of detecting sections are provided at positions at which their optical paths do not interfere with each other, and thereby, stable detection can be performed and malfunction can be prevented.
Preferably, at least two detecting sections are arranged in the different directions from the direction of the optical paths, viewed from the direction of the plane surface of the mechanism, in the disk player.
The arrangement directions of the plurality of detecting sections are different from the direction of their optical paths, therefore, the interference of the optical path which tends to occur in the case where the detecting section is arranged in almost the same direction as the direction of its optical path, is prevented.
More preferably, at least two detecting sections are arranged in,the direction almost perpendicular to the direction of the optical path, viewed from the direction of the plane surface of the mechanism, in the disk.
The arrangement direction of a plurality of detecting sections is the direction almost perpendicular to the direction of their optical path, therefore, the overlap of the optical path of the detecting section does not occur with each other, thereby, the interference with each other is prevented.
Furthermore, at least two detecting sections are arranged such that the optical paths are reverse to each other, viewed from the direction of the plane surface of the mechanism, in the disk player. At least two detecting sections are arranged in the direction in which one light receiving and light emitting surface is not opposed to the other light receiving light emitting surface, in the disk player.
The optical paths of detecting sections are in the separating direction from each other, and therefore, the overlap of the optical path of the detecting section does not occur with each other, thereby, the interference with each other is prevented.